When he retired in 2003, Brian Shaw got some advice from Phil Jackson. The Lakers' head coach told him to take a year off before starting his coaching career.

Why?

So the other players "can respect you as a coach," Jackson told Shaw. "Because these are the guys you played with and played against. They still look at you as a player."

Shaw, a 48-year-old born and raised in Oakland, wound up waiting 10 years to become a head coach, including eight as an NBA assistant. Meantime, Mark Jackson, 49, was a national broadcaster for seven years but hadn't worked a sideline before the Warriors hired him in 2011, and Jason Kidd, 41, practically put on a suit over his jersey this season in Brooklyn, just months after he retired.

Shaw had to bide his time, and pay his dues. He was on the Lakers' staff for six seasons beginning in 2005 and the Pacers' for two before getting tapped by the Denver Nuggets. Shaw returns home Thursday to try to close out an up-and-down rookie season on a high note.

"A lot of people talk about the first-year head coach stuff and he hasn't shown any of that at all," Denver assistant and former Warriors guard Lester Connor told NBA.com. "He's set the foundation. It's been an injury-riddled season for us, and the way he's handled it, it's like one of the best coaches in the league, and he is."

After replacing George Karl, who was fired following last season's first-round playoff loss to the Warriors, Shaw watched as Andre Iguodala was traded to Golden State and Danilo Gallinari couldn't make it back from knee surgery. Center JaVale McGee went down (tibial stress fracture) after only five games. Fifteen-year veteran guard Andre Miller was sent packing after he and Shaw had a power struggle. Point guard Ty Lawson has missed 14 games and counting.

"That's the frustrating thing about even going into this offseason, looking forward to next season still having question marks as to what we really have," Shaw told the Denver Post.

Denver, which started 14-9, will miss the playoffs for the first time in a decade. But five players - Lawson, Kenneth Faried, Timofey Mozgov, Evan Fournier and Quincy Miller - are averaging career highs in points, and Shaw has kept his head up.

Thanks to help from another Oakland guard, Kidd.

The two have called and texted each other throughout the season, and are looking forward to sitting down and laughing about their challenging first seasons this summer.

"We've had our share of ups and downs and rough stretches," Shaw said. "So we've communicated back and forth. Just, 'Hang in there,' and 'Nobody said this was going to be easy.' We grew up together and both pulling for one another."

The Nets, who also brought in future Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in the offseason, started 10-21 and many were calling for Kidd's head. Brooklyn has gone 33-14 since then.

"It's something he said when I saw him in Brooklyn, (that) things don't come easy," Kidd told the Denver Post. "So I think we both can handle that and both will work hard to continue to get better."

Step backward

The Nuggets went from a 57-win team and the third seed in the West last season to out of the playoff picture this season. How their stats compare from year to year: